Rescue Me Season 6

I hated Chief "Needles" since he arrived on this show. Since late last season and all of this season I have been warming up to him and he is starting to feel like one of the guys.

After this past episode, he is now one of my favorites. Damn that was awesome what he did to get the firehouse back open.

I knew that the station wouldn't stay closed, but it was funny how he did that. Even if the older chief wanted to go a more civilized route, I don't think he would have succeeded like Needles did.

Just excellent and ballsy.

 

And the opposite sentiment goes for Mickey this season.

He used to be a likeable guy. He played a bit of an angel role to Tommy's behavior in the past.

Now he's just acting like an insecure shithead.

 

I feel the same way. I hate Teddy the most, but Mick is his assfuck buddy.

 

So does anyone want to discuss the huge fucking spoiler and one of the biggest moments in Rescue Me history that was shown in the previews for next week's finale?

Spoiler

Damien dies...

 

I didn't read the spoiler, but either way it doesn't look like things will bode well for anyone, esp. Lou and Damien. I know Tommy is going to be blamed for Damien getting hurt or whatever, but that was really on Lou.

 

I dont think it was possible for them to foreshadow that table saw hurting someone anymore than they did. Which leads me to believe Damien isn't just banged up a bit, like if something fell on him.

Also, the special effects on the collapse on top of him just looked weird.

That scene at the beginning was both incredibly uncomfortable and hilarious. This show does that sort of thing soo well.

 

Wow, that ending freaked me the fuck out.

 

Somehow I knew Damien wouldn't be dead. I don't know that I thought he'd be a brain-damaged cripple, but I knew he wasn't dead. They tried really hard to hide the reveal of Damien being a brain-damaged cripple, but it was about as foreshadowed as the table saw falling.

The ending did freak me out a bit, though. Tommy usually hallucinates dead people, not living people who happen to be fucked up. I expected to see some of Jimmy and his reactions to what happened to his kid, and whether or not he blamed Tommy.

Overall, a decent episode that sets up more for next season than anything else. Honestly, this episode felt more like the first episode of a new season than the last episode of this season. It sets up:

--Tommy knowing Janet is pregnant, but Janet not knowing that Tommy knows.
--Uncle Teddy becoming Colleen's new sponsor
--Tommy dealing with his feelings of guilt and blaming himself for Damien's accident
--Micky rallying to get Sheila to give up on Damien walking
--Lou attempting to stay on the job, despite the fact that his heart can't take it

The only storyline that seemed to be 'wrapped up' in this episode was the storyline revolving around Garrity and Mike getting honoring the memory of their friend (which was an awesome ending to that storyline, BTW).

Here are my predictions for next season. I have no idea what will happen, but this is what I predict:
--Chief Feinberg realizes he is losing his mind. They've been pushing this a bit. Feinberg ends up stepping down. Meanwhile, Lou convinces his doctor to let him pass his physical if Lou pushes to become a chief. At some point, Lou ends up replacing Feinberg, and becomes the chief along with Needles, which allows him to stay on because he doesn't have to run into the buildings anymore, and his doctor will continue to fake his physicals as long as he isn't running into the buildings.
--Tommy continues to blame himself, and struggles to balance his home life with Janet and taking care of Damien. He blames himself for Damien, so he refuses to NOT take care of Damien at the cost of losing his family.
--Janet continues to be an ungrateful cunt who would rather have Tommy bending to her every whim than let him do anything for his crippled and brain-damaged godson. I will continue to hate her very existence.
--Sheila absolutely falls off the insanity cliff. Honestly, I see her physically harming Tommy in some way when she comes to blame him for Damien's accident
--Who the fuck knows what will happen with the rest of the guys in the house. They'll come up with some kind of B-story for Franco, Mike, and Garrity.

 

That's probably because the "final season" is being stretched out over two years. This season had 10 episodes and the next season is supposed to have only 9 (with the series finale rumored to air on or around the 10th anniversary of 9/11).

Those are short orders even for summer series, which are usually about 12-13 episodes. A full season of a regular network show is around 20-24, so I wouldn't be surprised if FX already has the last year in the can much like they did with "The Shield".

 

That's because they spaced the episodes a couple months apart, like would normally happen with a season finale and the first episode of the next season.

King of annoying to me how much exposition they skipped over between the last episode and this one. I'm fine with that when they're just skipping Tommy's dad's funeral or whatever, but here we went from: Damien is fucked up, Lou is in trouble too, the rest of the crew has to somehow get them out of a burning building, to: a couple months later, Damien is paralyzed, everyone else is fine (and Lou has seemingly been on the job without further incident), Mickey is becoming an ever bigger douchebag, and Janet is pregnant.

 

Hmm...I cannot believe that Lou is being so, well obstinate and spineless. Sure, being a fireman is a risky job, but if Lou had not been in that building when he was, chances are that Damien would still be walking around with the ability to give his poor girlfriend those 12 seconds of passion. And all the pressure on Tommy seems a bit unfair. Janet literally wants him in 2 places at one time and then gets mad when he cannot. I don't know, she seems really inconsiderate (even though she does have a baby, 2 daughters, and apparently another one on the way) considering her husband's cousin has recently become an invalid. I can't say too much about Shelia. She is playing her role very well. I am surprised that Tommy is keeping himself together so well.

 

Is it reasonable to think that Janet was impregnated by Franco and took Tommy back to spare the child a shitty childhood?

 

I seriously doubt that. I was made pretty clear, and there was no indication, that anything happened between Franco and Janet.

 

Not to mention that even Janet is smart enough to realize that a baby that is half Puerto Rican is going to look vastly different than a baby that is mostly Irish. Tommy would figure that shit out in a second, and (no matter how big of a cunt she is) she knows Tommy too well and knows his reaction would not be one she would want to deal with.

Nah, that kid is Tommy's. Honestly, it is kind of a shame. Janet is such a cunt that I want to see Tommy just end up with Sheila, no matter how crazy that bitch is. "You missed your daughter's dance recital so that you could drive your braindead and paralyzed former fire-fighter Godson (whose own father was a firefighter that died in 9/11) to a ceremony to honor a fellow firefighter who died cleaning up ground zero after 9/11. You are an inconsiderate asshole."

Something there just doesn't add up.

 

As often as Janet rubs me the wrong way, I can't help but (mostly) take her side on this one.

We've been beat over the head from day one how much Colleen (mostly) hates Tommy, but for some hard-to-figure reason Katie has (mostly) stayed in his corner...all the more surprising considering she's been living (mostly) full time with Janet all these years. I can understand the strong sense of loyalty Tommy would have towards Damien and Sheila, but he's seriously been taking his blood family for granted for nearly a decade or however long it's been since Janet first kicked him out of the house.

At the risk of sounding like a pop psychologist, I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that his firehouse family is remarkably bereft of any immediate family members of their own. Lou, Franco, Garrity, Mike, and Black Shawn are all bachelors. Only Needles is "married"...but we've all met Mrs. Needles so let's take that for what it's worth. Lou and Garrity are both divorced; Franco had a kid for a minute but she's returned to being the afterthought she always was. But otherwise, 62 Truck is basically a bachelor pad where Tommy can escape the pressures and expectations of being a good husband and father because there's no one there to remind him about it.

That doesn't mean that wanting to take care of his part-time Keefe family or wanting to honor a fallen firefighter makes him an asshole, but it's certainly hard to keep using that as an excuse for neglecting his own kids.

 

I bolded the part that I think is important: my theory is that Katie realizes how big of a cunt Janet is, and when given a choice between the 'lesser of two evils' she will choose Tommy every time. Before Tommy got shot, he went by to get Katie from Janet's house, and she was more than happy to leave. She saw how Janet dated Dwight (Michael J. Fox was so awesome in that role) and she was freaked right the fuck out. Overall, the reason Katie is in Tommy's corner is because she really has two choices, Tommy or Janet, and she realizes what we all do: Janet is a giant cunt.

Colleen hates Tommy, but she also hates Janet, so that is kind of a wash, and Wyatt is too young to know what the fuck is going on.

There is no doubt in my mind that Tommy likes his firefighter family more than his real one, but they don't ask as much of him, really. He watches their back in fires, they watch his. When it comes to the job, there is no one any of them trust more than Tommy.

Janet, meanwhile, wants Tommy in five places at once. She wants him to make the money to support his family, but demands that he be home to take care of his kids. She wants him to take Colleen to AA, then go to Katie's dance recital, and most importantly, she wants him to completely ignore his now-cripped and brain-dead Godson, who (lets face it) Tommy feels responsible for.

I think that is what bothers me most. For all the years they've been together, it seems like Janet has not, ever, once really taken into account what Tommy might be feeling. She seems like one of the most emotionally selfish people on the planet.

 

Maybe they'll edit in something about Bin Laden?

 

I popped a chub when I saw this teaser. I'm stoked for the new season, plus Pearl Jam's "Elderly Woman..." was used.

 

Looks pretty damn awesome. I can't wait to see how they wrap everything up. I really hope they put something in about Bin Laden's death but wouldn't be surprised if they didn't since it's already been shot. I can only imagine what Tommy and the rest of the firehouse would have to say about such an event.